


Letters to the Lost

by IllusionsOfInsanity



Series: A Boxful of Letters (Asra and Aria) [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Aria gets sad whoops, Asra (The Arcana) Route Spoilers, Asra (The Arcana)'s Route, Blame the Canon for the Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Aria Backstory, Drama, Drinking, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Julian Devorak's Route Spoilers, Julian tries to let them have a fun night out but his apprentice is a sad drunk, Pining, Pre-Canon, Prequel, Slice of Life, This starts sad but I swear it gets happier later, Unrequited Love, i accidentally wrote this calling Barth Barte, only realized my mistake when i went to tag him
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 13:53:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18812230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllusionsOfInsanity/pseuds/IllusionsOfInsanity
Summary: "How about we go out and have a few drinks in honor of our partnership, eh?"Aria stared at him for a moment before she lifted a brow, a teasing smirk on her lips. "I've been working with you for quite a while now. Isn't a bit late for celebratory drinks, Doctor Devorak?""It's never too late to celebrate, Aria," Julian corrected her.A laugh bubbled from her lips, one that shook her sides and made her close her eyes. Eventually, her laugh died away, and she met his eyes with a nod. "Alright then, I'll take you up on those drinks."*After a messy argument that results in Asra leaving Vesuvia without her, Aria follows her heart (and the advice of a Tarot card) and becomes a doctor's apprentice to try and stop the spreading Red Plague. She's assigned to Doctor Julian Devorak, a man whose theories revolve around blood. Though he was entirely forced into taking an apprentice, he finds himself growing close to the compassionate and energetic woman anyway. Getting too attached when you're working against an incurable disease is a terrible idea, but those are always his best ones.This is the story of a friendship, broken hearts and stolen time.





	Letters to the Lost

Julian muttered to himself as he sipped at his tea. He much preferred a cup of coffee while he was doing paperwork, but his apprentice had insisted on him doing something about his sour stomach. While he appreciated the sentiment in her making ginger tea for him, he'd much rather have powered through and had a few cups of coffee to fight his drowsiness.

He also didn't have the heart to tell Aria that his hangover was largely the culprit for his sickness. Although, perhaps she already knew.

The doctor tore his eyes away from his notes and glanced over his shoulder. Aria was hunched over a piece of paper, scratching away with her inked quill. He watched for a moment, his lips quirking into a frown. She had finished copying his notes hours ago. Was she working on her diagrams again?

Interested, Julian pulled himself from his chair, abandoning his tea on his desk. His long stride made him close the distance between them rather quickly, though his steps were nearly silent from years of less than savory practice.

His apprentice played with her brown hair as she paused with thought. Her left hand absently twisted the end of the long braid that was over her right shoulder, flicking the hair at the ends this way and that. Aria was completely oblivious to his presence. It was as if she was alone in this library.

Julian raised an eyebrow. She usually noticed him shadowing her to check her work. Whatever she was working on, it was taking a lot of thought. Curiosity burned at his chest. Perhaps against his better judgement, he tilted his head to look around her at her piece of parchment. His shadow shifted to crane around her.

Aria quickly noticed the movement and jolted. She whipped her head around to stare at him with wide eyes. Julian felt a bit of shame burn at his ears. Worse yet, when she moved, she covered the paper. "Master Devorak," she said, her voice sharp with surprise. "I-I uh... Do you need my help with something?"

Julian choked on a puff of amused air. He had told her before that there wasn't any need for such formalities, but still, she often called him 'Master Devorak' or 'Doctor Devorak'. He still found himself correcting her. Just because she was his apprentice didn't mean she couldn't call him by his own name.

"Please, Aria, just call me Julian," he reminded her. Her cheeks glowed red, but she nodded. He grinned just a bit to try and ease her mood. "Well, I, uh, noticed you were working on something over here. I just wanted to check and see if you wanted me to check your work," he told her. "Thought you, er, might be working on your diagrams again."

Aria's turquoise eyes widened before she smiled and shook it off. "Oh, no, no. I was just writing a letter, Doc—, er, Julian." Her words were a bit scrambled by then end from her embarrassment. "I apologize. I can work on diagrams again if you want me to," she said.

Her mentor shook his head with an easy smile. "There's no need for that," Julian told her with a smile. "You're free to write a letter anytime you wish. Besides," he said with a grin, "we're out of work for the day." He took a moment to sit on the floor beside her, crossing his legs as he did so. "Mind if I ask who you're writing to?"

Aria's face was still red. She thoughtfully bit her lip and played with her hair. Julian absentmindedly wondered how long her hair would be if she hadn't braided it. Even when tied in a fishtail, it ended about level with her breastbone. His thoughts were interrupted by her placing her quill down.

"I, uh," she fumbled with her words. Her eyes, normally so bright, seemed rather dark and somber. "I'd rather not talk about it," she admitted.

Julian should have expected as much, but still his eyes widened. His apprentice was rather well known for being talkative about most everything. But, come to think of it, she had never really said anything about her family or any friends. He frowned, his brow lowering with thought. Perhaps there was something sore there. Not like it was any of his business anyway...

"I, uh, I'm sorry that I asked," he stammered. "I know it's none of my business. I shouldn't have asked you."

"No, no," she interrupted, her eyes widened. "It's okay! I was writing personal letters when I should have been working, anyway." Aria carefully picked up her letter. With gentle hands, she folded it into quarters and tucked it away into the leather bag slung over her shoulder. She then pulled her maroon cloak tight around her, hiding the bag from view. "I won't do it again," she told him. Her lip quirked downwards as she stared at her knees.

Julian waved his hands and leaned towards her. "You don't have to do that!" His face felt warm. Leave it to him to make such a big deal out of nothing. "You can write a letter any time you wish! I shouldn't have stuck my nose in." He paused for a moment. Perhaps it would be best to change the subject.

"Thank you for the tea," he said, an imploring smile on his face. "It's actually rather good, though I still would prefer a cup of coffee."

Aria looked back up at him, her freckles shifting with a small smile. "You're quite welcome. I thought it might ease your stomach a bit." She opened her mouth to say more, but she stopped herself. Though, he had a feeling of what she was going to say next.

"Though uh, perhaps drinking less would help me more, eh?"

Aria looked at him in surprise before she chuckled a bit. "That would help, yes!"

He grinned. That seemed like the ticket. "I suppose it would be rather hard to perform surgery when I'm seeing double," he mused sarcastically. "I should have gone home earlier last night, but the tavern was rather lively and the company was good." Julian's stormy grey eyes gleamed. "Do you drink, Aria?"

Her eyes widened. She glanced apprehensively at the window before she stared at the floor. "I, uh, not really? Not unless I'm out with someone else," she admitted. Her freckles were harder to see when she blushed. "Though I'm... not exactly welcome in the tavern in the market."

Julian's eyebrows rose. Oh, that sounded like a story. If there was one thing Julian loved, it was stories, specifically telling them. Hearing a good story, well, that was almost just as fun. "Oh really? Well, mind if I ask why?"

Aria pulled on the collar of her cloak. "I, uh... I made quite a mess one night," she admitted. "I went out alone and ended up in a fight?"

Excitement pushed upwards in Julian's chest. "A fight," he echoed, his excitement bubbling out of his lips. "You? In a fight?"

She bashfully shrugged and stared at his desk. "It...wasn't a good night for me, I'll admit. I hadn't even ordered a drink yet. This man started trying to get me to sit with him, order a few drinks, the like. I didn't want the company, so I told him to beat it. That didn't really work." She lifted her hands and tightened them into fists. "So things...got heated. I ended up taking on him and his friends—"

" _By yourself_ ," Julian interrupted, his eyes wide. Aria seemed like the last one to get in a fight, let alone one where she was outnumbered. That was something he was more likely to do.

"By myself. Anyway, punches were thrown, then the chairs and then—" She snapped her fingers and suddenly sparks flew from her thumbs. Julian hurriedly crawled backwards in surprise, pushing himself up against a chair. Aria stared at her hands, her eyes wide.

"You can do magic," Julian asked, incredulous.

Aria spread her arms as if she were presenting herself. "I'm a magician," she admitted.

Julian leaned towards her again, a hand resting on his knee. "And you chose to become a doctor's apprentice," he asked.

"I wanted to use my magic to help others. Besides, I know a few herbal remedies. I did work under an apothecary for a time, after all," Aria explained.

Julian's stormy eyes gleamed. "Oh really?" He smiled at her excitedly. "You're full of surprises tonight, Aria!"

Initially, her smile was nervous, but it slowly eased. "I try to be helpful in any way I can," she defended.

"And you've most certainly helped me plenty," her master responded with a smile. He watched her bashfully stare at the floor for a moment before he eagerly leaned forwards. "But please, tell me,  _what_  happened next?" Aria stared at him, eyes wide for a moment. His smile had turned roguish. "You can't start a story like that without letting me know how it ends! How did you win that fight?"

Aria started nervously playing with her braid. "Well," she began, her eyes trained to a corner of the room. "I...er, I let my anger get the best of me," she admitted, shame burning her ears red. "I caught one of the chairs and uh, I set it on fire and threw it back at them?"

There was a moment of silence between them. Excitement rose in Julian's chest. Slowly, the doctor's awed face morphed into impish pleasure. "You, you threw a  _flaming_  chair at them," he laughed. "Wow. Oh, wow! That's quite something!" He laughed before he sighed. "Man, I wish I could have been there to see it!"

His apprentice looked rather horrified. "Oh, no! It was awful!" Aria started to wring her hands. "I set the whole table on fire! It started to spread so quickly and then the whole tavern was stampeding out the door." Her eyes slowly shifted to look at him, but her brows were knitted with guilt. "I managed to put it out, but the owner rightfully banned me from their establishment." Her cheeks grew several shades darker. "I don't blame them. That could have ended a lot worse than it did."

Julian gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. Their eyes met, and his gaze softened. "It was an accident. You shouldn't beat yourself up over it." His lips pulled back to a smirk that some could easily call dangerous. "Besides, I've gotten into  _far_  worse trouble than that! I'm sure it will blow over in a few weeks."

Her turquoise eyes softened on him. "Do you really think so," she asked hesitantly.

Julian rose to his feet and straightened his coat. "I know so." He watched her smile for a moment before he outstretched a hand to her. "Well, I happen to know a great tavern nearby, one that doesn't mind a couple of troublemakers like us," he told her. Aria carefully took his hand and he helped her rise to her feet. "How about we go out and have a few drinks in honor of our partnership, eh?"

Aria stared at him for a moment before she lifted a brow, a teasing smirk on her lips. "I've been working with you for quite a while now. Isn't a bit late for celebratory drinks, Doctor Devorak?"

"It's never too late to celebrate, Aria," Julian corrected her.

A laugh bubbled from her lips, one that shook her sides and made her close her eyes. Julian grinned. That was the spirit he wanted to see. Eventually, her laugh died away, and she met his eyes with a nod. "Alright then, I'll take you up on those drinks."

The pair walked to the door of Julian's office, though Aria lingered just a moment to fix the bag over her shoulder. The doctor lead the way, his eyes lingering on a sleeping lump on the floor of the clinic.

"Brundle," he called.

The lump shifted only just enough for a large, wrinkled head to poke out from behind a mound of auburn fur. His faithful dog lazily opened one eye, tail wagging once or twice before she cocked an ear to listen.

"Watch the clinic for us, okay? Aria and I are going out to the tavern for a few hours. I'll be back," Julian told the dog.

Brundle woofed a small woof, the sound muffled by her long, dragging ear. Aria stole away from her master's side and appeared beside Brundle. She clicked her tongue a few times as she gently took her large head in her hands and pressed her nose against Brundle's. "Be a good girl," she whispered to her. "You're always a good girl," she added hastily. "But, watch the shop. If anyone tries to break in, bite them!"

Brundle's tail slapped the floorboards. Julian couldn't help but chuckle. Aria had taken a shine to his dog far faster than anyone else he's ever met. She had been smitten with her practically from the first moment they had met. In her defense, Brundle was the best dog Julian had ever known, in his completely unbiased opinion. She took just a moment to press a kiss between her eyebrows before she stood up.

Aria quickly returned to Julian's side and smiled. "Okay, I'm ready to go." Her eyes lingered on Brundle before she looked back to the doctor. When she did, her smile weakened. "What?"

Julian just shook his head. "Oh, it's nothing." He carefully opened the door and held it with his back as he fished around for his keys. With his other hand, he dramatically motioned out the door. "Ladies first," he told her, his voice light.

She rolled her eyes. "How gentlemanly of you." She walked out the door and lingered just two steps away, her eyes watching as Julian fiddled with his keys.

Julian held his breath as he furrowed his brow. He knew which key was which. Sure, he had a  _lot_  of keys, but still. He could find the key to his own clinic. "Why do I even have to many keys," he muttered under his breath. Back in the day, he didn't  _need_  keys. Anywhere there was a door or a window, he could find a way in. Now that he was on the up and up, suddenly he had to hassle himself with a bunch of keys. Morality had its downsides.

Aria stifled a laugh. "Uh, would you like me to lock up the clinic, Doctor Devorak," she asked.

"Julian," he reminded her.

"You didn't correct me earlier."

"I thought you had been joking around."

Aria smiled a bit. "Well, I had been." She watched as he muttered a curse as he lost his place on the key ring.

"I can lock the clinic, thank you, Aria," Julian huffed. "I've locked this place up plenty of times."

She stared at him with something akin to disbelief. "If you insist," she muttered. Aria's eyes lifted to the sky, where she found the glittering void of stars waiting for her. A sort of melancholy smile graced her features as she stared. Julian might have stole a glance once or twice as he was trying to find the right key.

It wasn't often that Aria looked so...somber.

That woman was always seemingly bright and eager. Anxious? Maybe. Thoughtful? Sure. But the look in her deep ocean eyes was almost mournful. Such feelings were seemingly reserved for their ill fated patients.

Julian happened to still be staring when she pulled her eyes away from the moon. The two held a few moments of awkward eye contact, both flushing as they realized they had been caught in the act of staring. The doctor was the first to look away, his grey eyes looking over his keys as if they might melt away the irrelevant ones and leave him with only the key to his clinic.

Aria broke the awful silence.

With a quick mutter under her breath, she flicked her wrist. A single pewter key flew upwards and stood at attention on the ring. Julian nearly yelped and stumbled backwards. He looked to his apprentice, who quickly shrugged it off. "It's that one," she told him.

Julian's face burned. "I...I uh, I knew that," he insisted as he shoved it in the lock and gave it a sharp turn.

"You passed it three times already."

He huffed and buried his keys in his pocket. "Right. Sure I did," he huffed, his cheeks still bright red. He walked ahead of his apprentice, leaving Aria to follow behind him with a slight smirk on her lips. "That's irrelevant."

His discomfort melted into a roguish smile once again. His heart pounded in his chest. He wanted so desperately for tonight to be fun for them both. Aria always worked so hard, so tirelessly... She deserved something nice. If that meant acting up and playing the role of the fool tonight, so be it. "Well, the night is young! The stars are bright! I cannot think of a better time to grab a drink," he laughed.

Aria smiled just a bit. "Really? I think you might have said that last night," she hummed.

"Never!" Julian directed her around a corner, lifting an arm around her shoulders as she passed him by. She didn't seem to mind as his sleeve brushed against her neck. He let his arm fall around her in a jovial way. "Nothing makes a drink better than a laugh and a friend to share it with," he told her with a breathless smile.

His apprentice lifted an eyebrow and hummed in thought. "Well, I must say I disagree," Aria said. "I can think of a few things that make a drink better."

Now it was his turn to quirk an eyebrow. "Really? And what would those be," he asked.

He could feel the muscles in her shoulders stiffen. He opened his mouth to question it when she abruptly pushed his arm away and pressed a finger to her lips. Julian let his eyes really take in his surroundings. A gaping maw opened in his stomach as realized they had already arrived in the South End. Ahead of them, a woman huddled against the doorway of a house as she sobbed into her arms. A quiet, mournful understanding passed between them as the stench wound its way into the street.

As they neared the woman, Aria bowed her head and muttered again. Julian's eyes shot up as a glowing appeared in the corner of his eye. He caught the faint blue glow over the doorway before it faded from view. They reached the woman's side. Guilt pricked at the doctor's skin. "May their spirit be guided into the next life and be granted with good fortune," Aria offered the woman.

The woman stole a defeated, grief-stricken glance at them before she shook her head and turned away.

Julian watched a dark cloud overtake Aria's eyes as his apprentice let her chin fall to her collar.

That made seventeen this week.

The walk to the tavern was quiet from then on. Neither one of them could bring themselves to break the silence. Julian spent most of his time staring at the water churning down the center of the streets. Eventually, the gurgle of water started to compete with roars of drunken laughter and music. The sound brought a flicker of joy into Julian's chest, if only for the familiarity.

The doctor held out an arm to keep Aria from continuing on down the street. She seemed to startle out of a trance. The doctor's apprentice lifted her eyes from the cobbles and stared into his own, the edges of her eyes wet with tears. His chest burned with guilt again. He hadn't even heard her crying when she was right beside him. He tried to force the sorrow down and bottle it up with a smile.

"Can you hear that," he asked her, his tone light.

Aria closed her eyes and lingered there for a moment before she took a step closer to him. "Laughter?" She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Are we close?"

Julian grinned. "Closer than you might think." He motioned down a damp side street with a flourish. "Follow me, milady! A land of drunken revelry awaits us," he announced, channeling his inner actor.

Aria stared at him in what could only be described as shock. She then shook her head with a faint chuckle. "By the fates, Doctor Devorak,  _never_  call me milady ever again," she wheezed. She lifted her head and flashed him a mischievous look and grin. "You're giving me flashbacks to a rather horrible dancing partner I had at the masquerade some years ago."

A familiar rush of joy flowed through his veins.

"Oh? Is that so?" He gave her a smile as he took an oversized step down around the corner. Aria followed after him, her hands gripping her cloak. "That sounds like another story. I'd love to hear about it," he told her.

"You seem to have a penchant for those," she remarked.

"What can I say," Julian sighed as he nonchalantly shrugged. "I am a man of the arts. To me, an entertaining story is more filling than the finest banquet."

"Ah. So  _that's_  why I've yet to see you eat a meal. Sustaining on stories alone, doctor?"

Julian sputtered and looked back at Aria. His apprentice was following him with a bit of a smirk on her face. When he met her eye, her attention quickly caught on a nearby building. "Is that the tavern," she asked, trying to change the subject.

Julian followed her gaze and stopped when they stumbled across a building that was awash with light. It was impossible not to hear the drunken laughter and music from within. It was rather hard to miss the warbling, after all. A sign swung overhead sporting a boldly painted raven perched on the rim of a tin tankard. The doctor's lips cracked with a grin.

"Ohoho, yes," he replied with a laugh. "This is our stop." With a triumphant grin, he leaned against the oak door, his eyes crinkled with joy. "Aria, allow me to welcome you to the Rowdy Raven."

With a flourish, Julian pulled the door open and swept his apprentice inside.

He turned back as the door was shutting to see Aria's eyes widen. The tavern was glowing amber tonight, the candles within the lanterns overhead casting flickering shadows over the distracted patrons. Several of the windows were intricate mosaics of colored glass that Julian knew from shameful experience made the whole place a rainbow of light in the sunlight. While many of the tables were occupied, the bar was relatively empty, save for a man who had passed out at the very edge.

Julian opened his mouth to comment just as someone jumped over a table and dove for a man's throat. The two dropped to the floor as a few other patrons cheered them on. The bartender seemed relatively unfazed and instead returned to picking up scattered and emptied tankards.

The doctor and his apprentice watched the fight with glued eyes as two more men jumped into the fray. Her mentor pulled his eyes away and instead looked to Aria, who flinched back as a head collided with a table. "So, what do you think?"

Aria painfully peeled her attention away from the brawl. She stared up at Julian, her turquoise eyes awash with the flames of the lanterns and a concerning amount of second thoughts. She was quiet for a moment, her eyebrows raised as she considered her mentor. "I think I'd rather sit at the bar," she said after several painful moments of silence.

Julian erupted in laughter and slapped her back in reassurance. The motion caught her off guard, causing her to stumble forward with a breath. He went to catch her, but Aria caught her footing and steadied herself. After he was certain she wasn't going to fall over, he cracked a smile and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"That's the spirit," he chirped. "Come on, I'll show you my favorite spot to sit."

Julian's heart was pounding as he took a spot directly at the middle of the bar. He motioned to Aria to pick a spot. After some deliberation, she wandered to the seat at his right. She stared at her boots for a moment before pulling her cloak off and draping it over the seat. She then moved her bag from her shoulder and instead tied it tightly around her waist. Aria swung onto the stool and stared at Julian as if she was questioning her judgement.

"So, do we order before or after the brawl ends," she asked.

Julian choked on a laugh before he shook his head. Despite the noise of the yelling, he could still hear the music and singing carrying on as if nothing had happened. That usually meant that it wasn't that big of a mess. He offered her a smile and brushed off her concerned brow. "They'll break it up soon enough," he reassured her. "As for the drinks..."

Julian caught the eye of the bartender as he returned to his post. The doctor shot him a winning smile. "Barth! It's great to see you! How's the night treating you," he said, the smile never leaving his face.

Barth stared at Julian before shrugging. "Seen worse nights," he replied after seeing Aria's concerned face. He shifted his eyes to her and gave a wry smile. "And who's your friend, Ilya?"

Aria gave Julian a look. "Ilya," she echoed. Julian avoided her gaze, even as it burned a hole into his cheek. She said his name so effortlessly that it took him by surprise. "Just how many names do you have, Julian?"

"All the best men have at least two dozen," the bartender chuckled.

Relief washed over Julian as they exchanged a glance. He then looked back at Aria. "Well, this is my apprentice, Aria."

Aria sat a little taller and offered a hand. "A pleasure to meet you," she said, her voice light with nerves.

The bartender simply raised a brow and shook her hand. "Aria. It's nice to have a face put to that name." He then looked back at Julian. "Though, I thought you swore that you were never taking an apprentice," he asked, a bit suspicious. Julian felt Aria's eyes burning though him again. "In fact, I remember you half past drunk and clinging to my bar, rambling on about how bringing an apprentice under your wing in such conditions was a selfish idea, how it was too much responsibility for you—"

"Ah, a friend of mine convinced me otherwise," Julian interrupted.

"I was assigned to him," Aria corrected. Julian cast a scandalized look her way, a hand against his heart. "They didn't give him much of a choice." He was seconds away from interjecting, but he could see a cloud over her eyes. Was that...sadness?

Understanding turned his stomach to stone. Aria hadn't known he had been so reluctant to take her under his tutelage. She had seem him argue the matter with Doctor Reagla when she had been ushered to his clinic that fateful day, sure. But she hadn't known how viciously opposed to the idea he had been before he met Aria. He wished that Barth hadn't said so much, even if he had just meant to tease a friend.

Julian placed a hand against Aria back and gave her a smile. The cloud passed over her face as she met his eyes, turquoise eyes churning with questions. "Well, that was before I met Aria. Taking her as my apprentice has easily been the best decision I've ever made in my entire life," Julian said confidently.

Aria's face warmed with awe. Her lips parted slightly before she tried to shake the surprise away from her face. "Do you...really mean that?" Her voice was so fragile. The doctor felt something crawl up his neck. There was a shadow across her face now. The doubt lingered in her eyes as she looked from the bag at her hip to his grey eyes.

"Absolutely," he replied without a second thought. "I wouldn't trade you for anything."

A smile broke through the clouds. "That's really kind of you to say, Doc—. I mean, Julian. Thank you."

Julian felt her smile coax one of his own to his face. He stared at the relief now settling over her features before Barth coughed loudly, drawing their attention to him. His cheeks were already warming before he caught the bartender casting him an amused look. "Well, then, what's the occasion, you two?"

Rust covered his vision, causing Julian to push his hair back a bit out of his eyes. "Well, uh, I realized that we never celebrated our partnership," he started, his eyes choosing to focus on Barth rather than Aria's gaze. "So we came here for a few rounds."

Barth raised an eyebrow. He seemed to consider something, but ultimately he said nothing. Julian felt a bit of ice trail down his spine. He was praying that his friend kept quiet about how often he had talked about Aria to him. If Aria found out, he might just suffer cardiac arrest right on the spot. Though, perhaps a stroke would be more likely because of his stress levels...

"Well, what were you in the mood for," the bartender asked.

Aria looked absolutely lost as she glanced up at the signboard hanging up above the bar. She squinted as she leaned back a bit, trying to angle herself to better read the options. Julian couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the sight. "Oh, no, er, Aria? How about I pick something for us," Julian offered.

"What's a Grumpy Growler," Aria asked innocently, seemingly ignoring Julian's words.

Barth practically guffawed in laughter at her question. His brown eyes lit up as he turned his head to Julian. "Don't tell me you've been tutoring your apprentice on how to get wasted, Ilya!"

Julian's face heated up as Aria watched the situation unfold like a cat about to pounce. "A-Absolutely not!" He decided to swallow his fluster and surge ahead. "We'll take two Grumpy Growlers and two Salty Bitters," he announced with his chin high. He screwed his eyes shut to avoid having to see Aria's reaction.

"Ah. I should have known." Barth seemingly shifted behind the bar. "Ilya always orders a Bitters, you know. He would buy out my whole stock if I let him."

The doctor's face burned with shame. "Uh, not true," he sputtered. "You make it seem like I'm nothing but a drunkard, Barth!"

The man laughed. There was a perilous clink of glass that made Julian open his eyes. Barth was setting down two glass tankards alongside the standard tin. The doctor could feel his apprentice staring at him and when he glanced at her, her face was warm with entertainment. "I can trust you not to break these, right, Ilya," Barth asked, his voice sending Julian's attention right back to the bar.

"Pfft, of course you can. I'll even set them aside when I'm done so you can clean them," Julian said proudly.

"Great." Aria finally tore her eyes away from her master to watch Barth as he poured their drinks, the alcohol was a differing shade of gold or amber depending on the drink. The Salty Bitters were always a dark color, almost a strange sort of tan. It reminded Julian of brittle, sunbaked leather. "Well, here you are. Enjoy your drinks."

"We most certainly will, Barth. Thank you," Julian replied.

"Thank you, Barth," Aria echoed.

The man gave them a nod before he left to go loom over the crowd of men that were still fighting behind them. Aria followed him with her eyes for a moment before she looked back to her mentor. "So, which are we drinking first," she asked.

Julian immediately reached for the golden mead. "How about we start with your pick?"

She nodded and leaned over the bar to look down into her tin tankards before she grabbed her Grumpy Growler. Julian lifted his glass high, taking great care not to slosh the contents out the side. "To our partnership," he announced with glee.

Aria lifted her tankard until it was level with his. "To our partnership," she echoed. "I couldn't have gotten a better master."

Julian felt his face burn. "A-And I couldn't have asked for a better apprentice."

With that, they toasted their drinks and eagerly downed the first few gulps. Julian made the terrible decision to down his drink in one go. Meanwhile, Aria was recoiling from the punch she had just gotten to the gut. She curled herself over the bar and gasped for breath before she looked to Julian, tears sitting on the corners of her eyes.

"I-I guess that's why they call it a Grumpy Growler," she croaked.

Julian laughed into his drink, forcing himself to brace his face in the crook of his arm and double over, praying that the drink didn't rush back up through his nose. He swallowed a few times to ensure that his mead stayed down before he grinned at his apprentice. "Oh yeah, it earned that name fair and square."

Aria lurched back and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't drink enough to stomach this kind of stuff," she moaned.

Julian's gaze went soft. "Hey, don't worry about it. If it's too much, we can order you something else."

She then angrily stared at her tankard before guzzling down the rest of the contents. With a huff of shamed triumph, she slammed her empty cup against the bar. She slowly turned toward the doctor and smirked. "But I've got enough fire to do it anyway," she told him, though the tears still lingered in her eyes.

Julian tried to ignore the flutter in his stomach. It was just the Grumpy Growler settling in, after all. After the shock ebbed away, he laughed and bumped shoulders with his apprentice. "And that's why I like you, Aria! You're never one to back down from an obstacle!"

Aria huffed and leaned her head back again. She let her eyes flutter closed for a moment before she stared at him again, eyes open just a crack. "That's not always my best quality," she mused.

"Well," Julian drawled, his hand reaching for his unfinished drink. "I disagree. There's no shame in being stubborn."

There was something dark in Aria's eyes again. She nearly clawed the full tankard as she snatched it and drank it in a few gulps. Julian lifted a brow with interest. She pressed the drink into the bar and shook her head. "There's plenty for me to be ashamed about, and being stubborn is definitely one of them," she gasped.

The doctor's eyes narrowed with concern. That...that didn't sound like the Aria he knew at all. He decided to broach the subject carefully. He took a swig from his drink and tilted his head. "How so? That stubbornness is what made me take you as my apprentice."

"It's gotten me into plenty of fights," she muttered bitterly. "Made me make plenty of mistakes I knew better than to make." Her knuckles turned white from clenching the counter. She eyed her empty tankards before scowling into them. She looked back over her shoulder and Julian followed her gaze. Barth was picking up chairs from the now finished brawl, idly stepping over a passed out patron on the floor. Aria's nose wrinkled before she called out to the bartender. "Hey, Barth! Can I get a refill?"

He lifted his head and looked them over. "A refill of what," he asked.

"A Salty Bitters," Aria told him. She glared at her two empty cups. "Make it two," she added after a moment.

Julian stared at his empty glass. "Er, I'll take another, too!" He had a feeling Aria was going to be drinking both of those. His pulse pressed against his wrist. It was clear that a nerve had been struck. He just hoped that after a few drinks, she might forget it and move on. He'd hate to soil their night out like that.

There was an itch in Julian's chest that was driving him insane. He carefully watched on as Barth returned to the bar and grabbed Aria's empty tankards. He wanted to lighten the mood more than anything in that moment. He had invited her out and now she looked nearly miserable. Luckily for him, the doctor came up with a terrible idea that would surely get her mind off things.

Bad ideas were what he did best, after all.

"How about a drinking contest," Julian asked with a grin.

Barth placed the man's refill on the counter and looked at the two with a raised brow. "Well, you two are the only customers still ordering right now, so I'm game," he said.

Aria swept her head towards her mentor. She watched him for a moment before lifting a shoulder at him. "I guess so. Though you seem to have an unfair advantage," she added slowly. "Barth here is so friendly with you, you might just be the only customer he needs to pay his business expenses."

Barth barked a laugh before morphing it into a cough into his elbow. Julian gave him a scandalized look before passing it to Aria. Her frown twitched as she tried to keep herself from smiling from the melodramatic pain written all over his face. "That is completely uncalled for! When did my apprentice become so dirty in a fight?"

Her efforts to stay somber were quashed. A corner of her mouth lifted into a smirk as she regarded him with warm disbelief. "You came into work with a hangover," she reminded him. Julian's ears warmed. "I was at the clinic before you were. I had to wait for you to arrive before I could get authorization for the patient reports.

Shame boiled under the doctor's fingertips as Barth just laughed at him. "I told you that you drank too much, Ilya," he chirped.

"And as my friend, the owner of this establishment and the bartender, it's your responsibility to not enable my bad behavior," Julian huffed.

Barth halfheartedly moved his hand over Julian's refilled glass. "Well then, guess I can take this back, then."

Immediately, the doctor snatched it away from the bartender. "No, no! I was joking!" Aria was laughing now, her voice bubbling over the music from somewhere deeper in the Rowdy Raven. He gave his apprentice a glare. "No more trash talking! Let's see who's the first to get to five more, eh?"

Aria looked at him in shock. "Five," she echoed.

Barth shook his head. "Oh, that's a terrible idea."

Julian just scoffed them off. "Salty Bitters go down like silk; you'll hardly notice. You'll uh, definitely be feeling them tomorrow, though," he added quickly. The man's grey eyes flickered back to Aria. "Well? You in?"

Aria stared at her drinks as if contemplating on whether or not that was a wise decision. She elected to ignore that debate rather quickly. "Alright then. Five it is. I still think this match is a bit weighted, though. I'm not much of a drinker," she admitted.

Her mentor just chuckled. "Luck loves a beginner and the Fates always favor the humble," he told her. "Trust me, you always surprise yourself in your first drinking match."

The woman let out a puff of air, but she held her tongue.

Barth grinned. "Okay then... Ready? Go," he laughed, busying himself with refilling Julian's other tankard as he counted down.

Julian immediately snatched his drink and pressed the lukewarm glass to his lips as if he was about to die of thirst. He could hear Aria scramble to do the same and he smiled against the rim of his tankard.

Their drinks were drained rather quickly. Perhaps challenging Aria to a drinking contest was a bad idea. Julian was rather proficient in downing his alcohol, but his apprentice seemed to have a fire in her stomach as she drained her tankards one after the other. After about three more Salty Bitters, the doctor could hear the blood roaring in his ears. His nose felt like it was on fire. He decided then that it would be good time to take a break and gauge how Aria was doing.

Aria placed her tankard on the bar and pushed it aside. Her turquoise eyes seemed almost glazed over. She loosened the neck of her white button up shirt and Julian had the wherewithal to be a bit warm in the face as she opened her buttons down to her breastbone.

That...was unusual.

But then again, he was feeling a bit warm, too. Julian huffed and wrenched himself out of his coat. He abandoned it in his lap and stared at his apprentice.

"Y..Uh, Y'kay, Ari," he slurred, trying to stop his head from spinning for a moment. His fingers wound his hair in knots before he looked at her again. Aria abruptly tensed as if she had been struck by lightning. Her shoulders were raised as if the wind had bit her neck.

"Don't call me Ari," she grumbled, her eyes narrowed. She seemed to be glaring at some point behind the bar, now. "Th-That's what he called me."

Julian felt his earlier curiosity burn his skin. "Who," he asked, leaning towards her. "Who's did?"

Her eyes swept low to her bag. With a sigh, she turned her eyes to the ceiling. She seemed to get dizzy from the motion, and she slammed her eyes shut and winced.

"Asra," she breathed after a minute of silence.

Julian felt like someone had punched him in the chest. The mournful twinge in her voice was enough to make him feel with dread. "Asra," he repeated, blinking slowly at her. The room felt a bit warmer. The weight the name carried rang a faint bell in his mind, but the thought was too foggy to reach. Instead he stared at her as if she had spoken in a foreign language. "Who...Who's Asra?"

Aria turned her head towards him. In that moment, Julian realized just how lost she looked. Her jaw went slack as her eyes brimmed with tears. He felt compelled to reach out to comfort her, but she turned away, dug her elbows into the bar and hid her face in her hands.

"He's..." Her words failed. She lowed her hands just enough to stare into space again, her eyes glassy and her tears leaving streaks down to her fingertips, where they lingered and gathered against her skin. "Asra... I love him," she said simply, her voice quivering.

"I love him and I-I...I lost him."

Julian's heart sank. Had he been a victim of the plague? The name had a familiar ring to it and he feared in the moment that it was because he had written it on a death report. Aria had spoken little about what had driven her to become an apprentice other than she had wanted to help people. Had she lost a lover to the plague and vowed to cure it in his memory?

The doctor swallowed to try and ease the tightening in his throat. "What... What happened to him," he asked, his voice low. The heat from the alcohol was pressing against his skin. He tried to move his hair a bit away from his face to try and cool down.

Aria's mournful face contorted into one of anger. Though the intensity was startling, her loathing was focused entirely on a cabinet behind the bar. Julian leaned back a bit, just in case. The magician turned doctor's apprentice took a shaking breath and closed her eyes. She seemed to be trying to steel herself, though her anguish hindered her efforts.

After a few minutes in silence, she opened her eyes again. Her lip quirked downwards. The heaviness in her eyes was one that Julian could only place as regret. His heart squeezed in sympathy.

"We ran my magic shop together, y'know," she began, her face wistful. "I've known him for years. We-We met before the masquerade, uh, back...back when Countess Nadia first arrived," she told him, though her tone was more of a question. She turned her chin upwards and several tears fell onto the wooden counter. "Took a few years, but we fell in love. I love him so much. He...He was my everything."

A blurry image came to mind of Aria's magic shop. He had been around that area of the city before the plague broke out. He tried to think back, trying to piece together if he had seen her there before. He must have, though he had no clear picture. He couldn't think of anyone else there, though.

Aria bit at her lip. "When the plague got bad, he wanted to leave," she whimpered. She took a moment and breathed again, her shoulders shaking. Sweat beaded on her brow. As the tears streamed down her face, Julian softly placed a hand against her shoulder blade. Though he was most certainly drunk, the sorrow radiating from her brought a bit of sobriety to his senses.

"I wanted to help people. I wanted to become an apprentice and try to find a cure," Aria admitted. Her eyes narrowed. "H-He...Oh...Asra was terrified. He wanted us to pack up and run away. But I said, I said I couldn't. That I couldn't abandon this city."

Julian wanted to say something, but his tongue felt swollen in his mouth. He just sat there and listened, unable to turn away from the grief in her eyes. An orange glow from the lanterns started to linger on the edge of his vision. The heat was starting to become stifling.

"Asra told me I was being foolish," she huffed. "Said that I'd sooner catch my own death than find a cure." Aria closed her eyes and scowled. "So, we fought. We both said some bad things. He said I was naive. I told him he was being selfish. He said I wasn't thinking straight. I called him a coward."

Aria sobbed. She hid her face in her palms and shook with her cries, leaving Julian to sit there and flounder for anything helpful to say. The woman sat on her stool and cried for a while before she pulled in a lungful of air and tried to speak again, her hands hovering just above her face. "I told him he was coddling me and that he didn't have faith in me," she croaked. "He told me it was pointless to try and stop the plague, that it was just gonna kill everyone anyway. I-I told him that if he wasn't gonna help that he...that he could just leave without me. And Asra...my Asra left."

Julian's hand carefully rubbed a circle against her back. Aria choked back a sob and his hand drifted to her shoulder. "Aria. Aria, I'm so...I'm so sorry," he stuttered. He couldn't imagine how she must have felt.

A voice in the back of his mind wondered if Pasha hurt so badly after he left.

A chill ran down Julian's spine. He faintly realized the orange glow wasn't the lanterns hanging in the tavern. Above Aria's head were several small flames. They floated about and burned without fuel, leaving embers that danced and cascaded around her. His breath caught in his throat. They were like wisps, straight out of the horror stories he had heard on the high seas. The sight horrified him. That wasn't possible.

"A-Aria!"

His voice pulled her out of her sobs. She sat at attention and the flames were snuffed out almost immediately. The oppressive heat disappeared, leaving Julian's arm to feel like it was burning. His apprentice stared at him, her eyes wide and pink.

After taking a moment to collect himself, Julian remembered the letter Aria had been writing earlier, of how carefully she had guarded it. "Wazthat letter for Asra," he asked, his words choppy.

She stared at him as if she was ashamed, then nodded. "I've been writing letters to him, but I don't know where he is," she admitted weakly. "I just wanna apologize." Aria bowed her head and her shoulders fell under the weight of her sorrow. "I write a letter every day, so he can know what happened. I'd do anything to see him again..."

Julian's heart jolted. The arm around her shoulders felt like lead. He swiveled in his stool and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Aria... Aria, I know he's gonna come back."

Aria snapped her head upwards and stared, eyes wide and mouth open.

"If there's anything I-I've learned about you, it's that...it's that you're incredible," Julian told her firmly. "If that Asra loves you, he'll come back. He probably just needs some time to cool off. You... A-Aria, you're so compassionate and intelligent... I can't think of anyone who would be dumb enough to leave you. He's gonna come back."

"R-Really? Do you really think so," she asked, her voice so quiet, so fragile.

"I know he will," Julian lied.

Aria seemed satisfied by this. She nodded her head and rested her hands on her cloak. It was almost on the floor now. Only the top of it remained on her lap. Julian offered her a lopsided smile. "And when you find out where he went, I'll help you get those letters to him," he promised quickly.

She stared up at him, a small smile on her face. "Really?"

"Absolutely."

Her smile grew, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Thank you, Julian." She reluctantly looked at her tankard. "I... I don't want to drink anymore. I... I wanna go home now," she whispered.

A bittersweet smile passed over his face as Julian nodded in agreement. "Ye-Yeah... I'm done, too. C'mon," he said as he slipped from his chair. He stumbled forward a bit and grabbed his coat. He danced to regain a steady stance before he extended a hand to Aria and acted as if nothing happened. "I can walk you home, uh, if you want."

His apprentice stared at him, a hand poised under her eye from where she had been rubbing her tears away. After a sniffle, Aria took his hand and fumbled to her feet. She hastily slung her arms through her cloak. "Thanks. I appreciate it." She hesitated and lurched back to the bar. Her hands fished around in her bag. "Hang on. I gotta...I gotta find..."

A thump rung out over the dying song of the tavern as Barth placed Julian's emptied glassware in front of him. "Don't worry about it," he told them. "Ilya, you just come back and pay your tab in the morning, got it?"

The doctor swayed as he bowed and flourished an invisible hat. "Wha'd I ever do without'cha, Barth?"

"Pay your tab before you left. Maybe drink some cheap beer and pass out in a gutter," Barth mused.

Aria burst into laughter. "A-And come back to the clinic in a wheelbarrow," she added helpfully.

Julian pouted as he halfheartedly glared at his friend and his apprentice. "Hey... That's low, Aria." She sheepishly hid her chuckles behind her hand as he bumped her shoulder with his own. "I'd only take the finest carriage back, obviously. Gotta get around Vesuvia in style," he teased.

Barth rolled his eyes and started to clean their tankards. "Please. They'd throw you over the backs of the oxen and call it a night," he huffed. Still, he smiled. "Have a safe night, Ilya. And you too, Aria. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"Thank you, Barth," Julian replied, his hands shaking as he tried to button his coat.

Aria simply buttoned her cloak and instinctively moved to button Julian's. His heart only stopped for a few seconds as she effortlessly pushed his pewter buttons through. "Thank you, Barth," she echoed, completely unaware of the redness spreading across every visible inch of skin. "It was...nice meeting you, too."

The bartender and owner of the Rowdy Raven just shook his head in amusement and waved them off. "Better get moving, Ilya. You know the palace guards will be making their rounds in an hour or so. Besides, that hangover is going to be terrible if you two don't sleep before the sun comes up."

Doctor Devorak nodded. Barth really had a point. Aria had told him that she didn't drink as often as he did. She could use the rest. "Right. Right. S'alright, let's get going, Aria." He took her hand and pulled her towards the door just as she cast her bag over her shoulder once again. He let her hand slip from his grasp as she followed him to the door.

"Have a pleasant night," she called over her shoulder to Barth.

"You too! Don't let him drop his keys in the river again," Barth shouted back.

"It's... It was one time!"

As the door to the Rowdy Raven swung shut behind them, the darkness slowly suffocated the amber glow of the tavern. With a great sigh, Julian stared up at the stars. They had about an hour to get Aria home before the palace guards started their morning rounds and with them, the sun would rise.

His arm subconsciously floated up to her shoulders and rested across them to try and steady her. After a moment, he could feel Aria's hand press against his back. "Well," he huffed. "Where's that shop of yours, again? Temple District?"

"Center City," Aria corrected.

Her mentor practically dragged himself across the cobbles, finding north by the skin of his teeth and the blurry stars above their heads in the inky darkness. "Huh, could'a sworn an angel like you would've come from the Temple District."

He tried not to grin at her. He really did. But the burning in his cheeks told him he definitely failed that mark.

Aria shifted her head only slightly, still staring at him out the corner of her eye. Her braid was looking rather wilted, he thought idly. The end was starting to unravel. "An angel, huh?"

Julian chuckled under his breath. He knew he should shut up, but he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Yeah, an angel," he confirmed. "Somebody like you? Going outta her way to help people, even when... ah, even when you could die? Takes a special kinda someone to be that selfless."

The past hit him across the cheek and spat in his face. He recalled in a haze how Aria had crumbled at the bar and sobbed about how her decision to be his apprentice had potentially lost her the love of her life. His words had meant to be a compliment, but now they soured the air between them. Julian debated on throwing himself into the rushing water gurgling down the middle of the street and letting himself flow out to sea.

After a painful silence, Aria sighed. "...I hope you're right," she murmured. "I just hope... that you're right."

Julian watched her stare at her feet as they forged a path to her shop. The silence between them at first was stifling, but then, it grew more comfortable. He still wanted to shrink into his coat and wish that he hadn't ever had the idea to go out drinking, but it was an improvement for debating how long it would take him to float out to the Lazaret.

The coliseum hunched over them before long. It cast a dark shadow across the streets, caking everything with its scorn. Aria seemed to lean into him more as they passed, though Julian didn't exactly mind. She still smelled like the lavender she had prepared that afternoon, the ginger she whittled for his tea and the Salty Bitters they had shared at the Rowdy Raven. It was an interesting combination.

He decided he would have liked it more without the smell of beer.

His apprentice was starting to lead him now. Though she was still drunk, she seemed to melt into the street as if a second skin. Every step was confident as she cut through dodgy alleys and stumbled over soggy, homemade bridges. Julian had to pick up his pace a bit to keep up with her.

"Julian." His name still rolled off her tongue as effortlessly as ever. He couldn't stop himself from staring up at her as she walked across a soaked board of wood as if it were a tightwalk.

"Yeah," he breathed. She paused and waited for him on the other side. Once he was beside her again, she looped her arm with his and pulled her cloak tighter around her.

"Thank you. For tonight," she said quietly. "I had fun. I'm sorry about... about crying."

Julian's heart soared before it came crashing down again. He shifted his arm so he could brush his hand against hers. "No, no, no... Aria, don't apologize. It happens. I-I can't  _tell_ you how many times I got a free Salty Bitters refill by shedding some tears," he joked. "It's just part of the experience."

Her turquoise eyes lingered for a moment before she laughed. "Yeah? Well, I guess I'm sticking to those Grumpy Growlers, then. They taste like honey, anyway."

"First off, it's mead. It's made of honey. Second, those things are honey that's on fire."

Aria shrugged. "Small detail."

"I feel that's a big detail, 'specially if you're a bear in the forest," Julian said.

Aria laughed again, and Julian's chest eased. Her smile lingered on her face as a homey building came into view, one with zinnias growing in boxes under the windows. The sign that swung overhead seemed to have been painted a few years ago, because the design had hardly any signs of age. On it, a fox and a snake curled and intertwined around a cauldron. It seemed to glow in the starlight, casting a silvery smog over the shapes on the sign.

His apprentice pulled away and rushed to the door. She pressed on the oaken surface with her palm, closed her eyes and waited, as if she was listening for something. Julian awkwardly waited beside her on the stoop. His shoulders slumped low as her excited energy ebbed away.

Aria weakly let her hand slide down the door as she pulled away. With a deep, heavy exhale, she burrowed inside her bag and found a single key ring with two keys on it. After staring at it for a moment, she gave Julian a mischievous, pointed look.

"See? I've got my house key and the clinic key. They're easy to tell apart, too."

Julian gave her a frown. "Why are you so keen on teasing me tonight," he asked her warmly.

The apprentice shrugged. "Alcohol, probably. Or maybe I'm just warming up to you."

"Oh, joy. Your friendship comes with a steep price, Aria. No man should have to suffer under your sharp tongue," he moaned dramatically.

She rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist. A rainbow of symbols flashed in front of the door before fading away. "I'd say my wit is a perk of knowing me," she argued. She then placed her key in the lock and gave it a twist. With a triumphant press of her shoulder, the door popped open. "Better than talking to those cadavers of yours."

"Ever heard of the expression 'dead men tell no tales'? It's a lie. A preserved corpse and a thorough autopsy can tell you a thousand secrets," he shot back.

Aria crinkled her nose in disgust. "If the smell doesn't knock you out first. Otherwise, that corpse is going to have a new friend to talk to." He opened his mouth to retort, but she reached out, grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.

Julian was rather surprised by what he found inside.

The interior was more akin to an apothecary than any magic shop he had stumbled into during his travels. There were jars and displays of plants, dried and preserved. Some hung from the ceiling, fresh and still growing wild in hanging pots. Others lingered on the windows in the curtains to dry out. Julian could detect the lingering smell of cinnamon over the tornado of scents.

His footsteps were heavy as he looked through the glass surface of the shop counter. Aria simply lingered behind him, locking up the shop and floating her hand in the opposite direction than she had flicked it in the street. His steel grey eyes lingered on a freshly made poultice and an eclectic assortment of potions.

He stood up straight just in time to see Aria throw her cloak over a chair in a curtained off room with a large round table. The bookshelves beside him were somehow taller than him. He watched in muted curiosity as his apprentice pulled a deck of cards out of her pocket.

A roguish grin pulled across his face. So, Aria played cards? A quick game or three sounded like fun. He excitedly wondered what style she liked to play as she shuffled her deck. Her hands moved with flawless grace that was only to be expected of master gamblers. Without sparing him a glance, she cut the deck in three and closed her eyes.

His excitement faded. Why was she splitting her deck in three?

He crept closer and loomed over her shoulder, but this time, she seemed to sense his movement. "What'sit?"

Julian furrowed his brow. The design on the back of the cards was incredibly intricate. A beautifully painted starscape was painstakingly copied down. Realization was slow as honey, but it hit him. The design was as accurate as any star chart. The constellation Orion glowed from the surface of the card.

"My tarot deck," Aria replied. She took this third of her deck and shuffled it, her eyes still closed. With a deep breath, she remained startlingly still. Then, with an exhale, she pulled the card from the top of the small deck and placed it face up on the table.

Julian tilted his head. The card was primarily a deep blue, thought it was punctuated with a deep, saturated red. A single tower rose in the distance as ivy coiled around it. It seemed to be squeezing the stone like a noose, leaving deep gashes in the bricks. In the foreground was a single stag, though from his mouth, red beetles took flight and headed towards the tower in the distance.

"S'pretty, but what is it," he asked her.

Aria's eyes flashed open as if someone had drenched her with freezing water. She fought for breath and stared down at the card on the table. Julian watched with concern as all color drained from her face, leaving her freckles in sharp contrast with the pink of her bloodshot eyes. She carefully placed the deck beside the card she had drawn as if any sudden movements might coax it to burst into flame.

Aria was quiet for a few heartbeats. "It's...it's The Tower," she told him. Her conviction swayed. There was a storm in her eyes now, but it churned too fast for Julian to read.

Julian was just as clueless had he had been when she drew the card, but Aria's reaction seemed scared. No...

She seemed panicked.

He outstretched a hand. "Aria," he called softly. She nearly flinched under his touch, but her head snapped towards him. The clouds over her eyes lifted just a bit. "Aria, you okay?"

She held eye contact for a moment before halfheartedly nodding. "Yeah," she croaked. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sure it just means my hangover is going to be hell tomorrow," Aria joked, though she was so unsure that it was entirely unconvincing. "I should. I should get some rest."

Julian dipped his head. "Yeah, er, perhaps that's a good idea," he replied. He raised his eyebrows. He hadn't realized just how raspy his voice sounded. He looked towards the door, but his feet remained right where they were. "I should head back to the clinic."

Aria gently placed a hand on his arm and Julian practically snapped his neck to look back at her. "Wait," she whispered. "Barth... Barth said you shouldn't go back to the clinic like this. I def-definitely agree with him." Her turquoise eyes lowered to stare at the floorboards between them. "You could stay here until morning," she offered softly.

Julian felt a rush of heat wash over him. "O-Oh, Aria. That's very, er, very kind of you, but I wouldn't wanna impose," he stammered. "I'm sure you'd rather have the place to yourself, anyway."

His apprentice looked back up at him. Her shoulders slumped. "It's quite the opposite, actually," she sighed. "I haven't lived alone in years. I'd much rather have the company. It...It gets lonely here. I don't have a familiar of my own...and...and Asra used to be here but now he's gone and I just hate the quiet," she rambled. A few tears started to fall from her lashes and Julian was slapped with the guilt.

He really shouldn't stay. His heart was already pounding out of his chest and he shouldn't leave Brundle alone so long. His faithful hound must be worried sick about him. He could see her now, sitting by the door and looking up at the knob, waiting for him to unlock the door and waltz back in.

Even as the image swirled in his mind, he couldn't ignore the look of lonely sorrow on Aria's face.

Before tonight, he couldn't have imagined his apprentice being so deep in mourning. She had always been so bright and diligent; Doctor Devorak never had the slightest reason to suspect the woman was so unhappy. She was never anything but kind and warm. Perhaps her wit was a bit quick on occasion, but what was life without a good tease or two? The realization that he had made such large assumptions based on her work ethic filled him with shame.

He couldn't leave her like this.

"I'll stay," he breathed.

Aria's face lifted as she drew in a deep breath. "Thank you." She smiled just a bit and started to wipe her tears away again. "I can make us some tea in the morning to ease that hangover that's in store for us," she offered.

Julian gave her a smile in return, hoping to ease her nerves. "That sounds wonderful. Thank you." He paused and looked around the store. Beside the separated room with the table and the storefront, there wasn't much space. "So, uh, where...where do you sleep?"

His heart jumped a bit when she motioned to the stairs behind her. "The bedroom is up here," she told him. She carefully let her hand trail from above his elbow to his wrist. She took a tentative step back. "Do you think you can handle the stairs?"

Julian took a step to match hers and put on a smirk. "I've been drunker than this, believe me." He patiently started to follow her up the stairs, though he leaned his shoulder into the wall beside him to keep himself from teetering over the unguarded edge. "Why, once I had to steer a great merchant ship through a sudden storm when I was so drunk, I could hardly stand," he bragged. "I had to hold myself up with the steering wheel!"

His apprentice looked back at him with wide eyes. "That sounds amazing," she breathed. "You'll have to tell me what happened!"

His laugh came out as hardly more than a breath. "If I remember I was talking about it in the morning, I'll tell you all about it," he promised.

They turned down a small hallway and almost immediately made another turn into the bedroom. It was rather small; the main focus was the bed by the window. A few bookshelves of tomes and trinkets lined the walls. There was a pile of pillows in front of them, though they appeared undisturbed in some time judging by how neatly they were stacked. Opposite of the bed was a small stove with a pretty yellow teapot on top of it. The nearby case of firewood was looking rather bare. The only other furniture were two large trunks closer to the door. One was left open with a single scarf dangling out of it and only a shirt left within, as if it had been emptied in a hurry.

Aria's footsteps seemed to echo off the floor as she walked over to the bed. The blankets were an absolute mess. There was a pillow in the middle of the bed, half under the covers and practically flattened. "I'm so sorry about the mess," she said. She hastily snatched the pillow and placed it back at the crown of the mattress. Her movements to straighten the covers were almost as swift as in the clinic, albeit much more uneven and repeated several times over. "I'm afraid I've been reluctant to clean it up."

Julian followed her steps. "It's fine. Looks homey," he told her. He then paused and stared at the bed. He felt like someone had hit him over the head with a boulder.

"There's, uh... Aria? You uh, there's only one bed," he stammered. His ears felt like they were on fire. The blood pounded in his ears.

She paused at the windowsill, her fingers pinching the end of a stick of incense. She stared at him for a moment as the color returned to her face in waves. She then abruptly broke eye contact and ignited the incense with only her fingers, moving them as if she was snapping them on the stick. The flame burned white for a moment before cooling to a familiar orange. The scent of lavender and chamomile wafted through the room.

"I-I...apologize," Aria stuttered. "I only have one. There was another one in here years ago, bu-but I had to burn it with the sheets after my aunt died."

Julian stepped back a bit. "Your...aunt?" She never mentioned family before, either. A part of him felt hurt that the only time Aria talked about the people she cared about was when she was wasted, but he wasn't one to talk on the subject. He hardly ever talked about Pasha to her. "Did she have the plague?"

His apprentice stared wide eyed before she shook her head. "No, no, no. She. She died of some unknown illness. It... the mess was too much," she muttered. "But that was years ago. It happened before the first masquerade the Count threw after his wedding."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

She sighed. "Thanks." She let her hand trail over her blankets as she moved away from the window. She then looked back up at her mentor with a nervous bite of her lip. "I-I don't mind sharing the bed. I'm used to it. But if you want, I can sleep in those pillows over there. They're quite comfortable."

Julian could tell by the way her eyes lingered over them that she wanted nothing more than to leave that pile of pillows as pristine as she could.

He took a step towards her and placed a soft hand against her back. "I can share with you," he told her. He let his hand fall back to his side when she turned her head back towards him. "I've shared plenty a bed before. I won't take up much room. You'll hardly know I'm there," he boasted.

Aria's lips quivered before she smiled. "Then it's settled," she breathed. She quickly kicked off her boots and sat on the side of the left side of the bed, right where it was pressed against the wall. "I-I always sleep here, if you don't mind."

The doctor just bowed. "By all means." He then walked to the edge of the bed and sat down. With a few grunts, he unbuckled his high boots and cast them aside across the room. He was about to lean back when he caught his apprentice staring at him, her shoulders low. He raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong," he asked.

She looked up at him for a second before shaking her head. "No. No, I'm..." She drew in a breath. "It's just that, you can take off your coat if you'd like. I can't imagine sleeping in that is comfortable."

He just stared at her for a moment. Well, he was still a bit warm, truth be told. And she was right; sleeping in leather was not ideal. He gave her a nod and clumsily unbuttoned his overcoat. "I'm just gonna leave it here," he muttered, tossing it over the headboard. "I don't want to forget about it in the morning."

"I'll help you remember," Aria said, slowly leaning back on her elbows. Her turquoise eyes hesitated over Julian before she let them flutter shut. With a quick brush of her hand against her eye, she took the covers in her hand and slipped underneath. "Goodnight, Julian."

Julian stared at her for a moment. It was starting to sink in that Aria was incredibly casual about this whole situation. Well, she did say that she was used to sharing a space. He cautiously pressed his spine against the headboard and lounged above the blankets. Like he was one to talk. How many casual encounters had he had over the years? His face and neck starting to burn again. As if on reflex, he itched at it.

"Goodnight, Aria. See you tomorrow," he whispered.

He sat there for a bit, listening to the blood roar in his ears and the throbbing starting to emerge behind his right eye. The doctor's heartbeat was still thrumming in his throat. Thinking the night over, he couldn't figure out how an invitation for drinks had lead to his apprentice pouring her heart out over a tankard of beer and accumulating into him sitting in her bed and watching as she desperately tried to sleep. The experience still felt a bit like a dream, or maybe he was just disassociating again.

There was a whimper beside him. Julian glanced over and found Aria lying towards him on her side, her arms outstretched as if looking for something.

His heart squeezed.

Her grief was a lot worse than she had let on.

With a small sigh, Doctor Devorak grabbed his pillow and moved it into her arms. True to his suspicions, the woman clamped her arms around it like and vice and curled into it. A bittersweet smile passed over his face. That seemed to soothe her for the moment, for her face relaxed and she exhaled without pause.

Gingerly, he lowered himself to lay on his back and folded his arms under his head as he had on many a cot below deck. Perhaps his idea had backfired a bit. Julian did feel that he learned a think or two about his apprentice, but not quite in the way he would have liked. He much rather would have had Aria laughing through the night and enjoying the nightlife with him. He hoped he wouldn't ever see her crying like she had been in the bar ever again, with such brokenhearted finality.

Instead, he felt like he had been eavesdropping on a confessional.

"Tomorrow's a new day," he sighed to himself. Perhaps then, he could think of a way to bring a smile to Aria's face. Who knows? That Asra might even come back around. Though, a darker part of him worried that if he did, Aria wouldn't want to stay employed in the clinic.

He pushed that thought away.

Tomorrow was another opportunity to find a cure, another day to end the suffering that clawed at Vesuvia's throat. Tomorrow was another day to see Aria smile as she worked, another day that they could talk and laugh over their studies and reports. There was tomorrow.

He let his eyes flutter shut.

Little did Julian know, that was the beginning of the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! IllusionsOfInsanity here with my first multichapter/series fic on AO3! Now that I've finally finished all the routes, I can finally write down Aria's Canonical Backstory without fear of completely missing or incorrectly predicting plot points. I know the first chapter is rather long, but I found it flowed better as one entire chapter. A quick heads up that the next chapter will be jumping back a bit chronologically, but the timeline will return to this point within a few chapters. 
> 
> As previously stated, this is my first multichapter piece on here, so I'd really appreciate hearing what you think! Any comments and kudos are very much appreciated and help motivate me to write more chapters faster ^^' 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed so far and plan on sticking around!
> 
> ~~Edit: I made a slight edit to the summary and tags because I didn't think they were strong enough.~~


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